1. TRADE UNON INITIATIVES FOR PROMOTION OF DECENT WORK: EXPERIENCES OF LATINA AMERICAN UNIONS Jesús García ACTRAV 1

3. IN 2003, IN THE FRAMEWORK OF THE CRISIS, ARGENTINA ELABORATED ITS FIRST DECENT WORK COUNTRY PLAN. IN 2006, CGT (GENERAL CONFEDERATION OF WORKERS), THROUGH ITS BOARD OF DIRECTORS, CREATED THE EMTD (DECENT WORK MULTIDISCIPLINARY TEAM) ITS OBJECTIVES WERE FOCUSED AT ELABORATING A POLITICAL AND TRADE UNION PLATFORM ON THE DIFFERENT DIMENSIONS OF DECENT WORK DECENT WORK MULTIDISCIPLINARY TEAM 3

4. 1.EMPLOYMENT POLICIES 2.DECENT WORK CREATION POLICIES AND PROGRAMMES FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 3.DECENT WORK AS A STRATEGY TO ERADICATE CHILD LABOUR 4.WORKERS’ EDUCATION AND VOCATIONAL TRAINING 5.PROMOTION OF OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY 6.FREEDOM OF ASSOCIATION AND COLLECTIVE BARGAINING 7.SOCIAL DIALOGUE 8.LABOUR INFORMALITY 4 CGT DECENT WORK PLAN

5. CROSS-CUTTING AXES FOR DECENT WORK ACTION PROGRAMME 1)THE PROMOTION OF EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES AND GENDER EQUALITY 2)THE PROMOTION OF MIGRANTS LABOUR RIGHTS AND THE PROMOTION OF POLICIES CONCERNING FREE MOVEMENT IN MERCOSUR 5 CGT DECENT WORK PLAN

6. EMTD: A DECENTRALIZED POLITICAL AND TRADE UNION PLATFORM The Litoral Region: Formosa Province The Noroeste Region: San Miguel de Tucumán, Tucumán Province The Patagonia Region: Río Gallegos and Caleta Olivia, Santa Cruz Province The Buenos Aires Region: San Nicolás de los Arroyos; Lomas de Zamora, La Matanza The Cuyo Region: San Juan Trade Union Self-Reform Programme Dialogue and Social Cohesion Programme 6

7. IN 2008 and IN 2012 TWO TRIPARTITES MEMORANDUMS OF UNDERSTANDING FOR THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE DECENT WORK COUNTRY PLAN HAVE BEEN SIGNED. DECENT WORK MULTIDISCIPLINARY TEAM 7

8. Decent Work Country Programme - Argentina 2008-2011 PRIORITY 1: TO LINK NATIONAL LABOUR POLICIES AND POLICIES HAVING AN IMPACT ON JOBS QUANTITY AND QUALITY PRIORITY 2: TO IMPROVE EMPLOYMENT AND EMPLOYABILITY CONDITIONS, WITH A SPECIAL FOCUS ON DECENT WORK PROMOTION FOR YOUNG PEOPLE AND LOCAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT. PRIORITY 3: TO CONTRIBUTE TO PREVENTION AND ERADICATION OF CHILD LABOUR.

9. PRIORITY 4: TO EXTEND SOCIAL PROTECTION COVERAGE. PRIORITY 5: TO STRENGTHEN AN EFFECTIVE SOCIAL DIALOGUE SO THAT CONSTITUENTS PROMOTE DECENT WORK DIMENSIONS IN SOCIAL AND LABOUR POLICIES. PRIORITY 6: TO CONTRIBUTE TO THE REDUCTION OF INFORMAL ECONOMY AND NON-REGISTERED EMPLOYMENT.

10. Oficina Regional para América Latina y el Caribe SOCIAL SECURITY FOR TRADE UNIONS TRAINING PROJECT (SSOS second phase 2010-2012) (Honduras, Costa Rica, Republica Dominicana, Colombia, Perú, Paraguay, Uruguay, Argentina, Chile y Brasil) Partners SOCIAL SECURITY FOR TRADE UNIONS TRAINING PROJECT (SSOS second phase 2010-2012) (Honduras, Costa Rica, Republica Dominicana, Colombia, Perú, Paraguay, Uruguay, Argentina, Chile y Brasil) PartnersTUCA GENERAL UNION OF WORKERS UNION COMMISSIONS SPANISH GOVERNMENT

11. INDEX A) GOALS B) WORK AREAS C) RESULTS

12. A) GOALS

13. THE 2nd GOAL OF THE PROJECT: Strengthen union participation in ILO tripartite activities. THE FIRST GOAL OF THE PROJECT: strengthen or creation of trade union technical teams within Trade Union Organizations, creation of continent-wide union networks on Social Security and Health and Safety at Work, and the exchange of experiences between trade unions at various levels: national, subregional and regional and also with Spain. THE FOURTH GOAL OF THE PROJECT: Facilitate training instruments and tools on Social Security and on Health and Safety at work. THE 3rd Promote gender equality through social security and occupational safety and health (OSH):

14. 14 B) WORK AREAS

15. Oficina Regional para América Latina y el Caribe WORK AREAS UNION TRAINING GENDER UNIONCOORDINATION TRIPARTISM AND SOCIAL DIALOGUE

16. Oficina Regional para América Latina y el Caribe 16 Methodology MEANING OF “UNION TRAINING”: - as a PROCESS - as a TOOL for action  method “Practice – Theory – Improved Practice” Need of tailor made“TRAINING ROUTES”: - MULTIVARIANT (according to participants’ profiles, needs and time) - QUAD-POLAR: highlights the interconnections with the other strategic axes of the Decent Work and mainstreams gender perspective) 1) UNION TRAINING

17. 17 NATIONAL LEVEL INTERNATIONAL LEVEL 2) UNION COORDINATION

18. National level International level - Increase unions’ participation in concrete experiences on Social Security dialogues and in processes of ‘delivering as one’ union action on Social Security. - All countries in which the project is carried out have set up Trade Union Technical Teams in each national organization - Defining a Continental Union Platform on Social Security (PLACOSS): discussion and collective construction process, which emphasizes the importance of ILO Convention 102 as a social security model to be followed, and which was approved by the Executive Board of the Trade Union Confederation of the Americas (TUCA) in 2010. - Defining a Continental Union Strategy on Occupational Safety and Health (OSH): for the Americas (ESSLA in Spanish) which emphasizes working conditions and representation rights, taking as its reference ILO Conventions 155, 187 and 161, the ILO’s Global Strategy on Health and Safety at Work and the Ibero- American Strategy on Health and Safety at Work promoted by Spain.

19. Evaluacion de Impacto- Proyecto SSOS I fase19 Inclusion of gender issues in proposals on social security on the agendas of national organization. Defining a training itinerary dedicated to gender and social protection, created as a result of the participation of female trade unionists, and replicable within trade unions. Participation of women and their protagonistic roles in the trade union technical teams. Review of the Social Protection Floor Initiative from a gender perspective so as to integrate womens’ demands. Participation of 530 women in the training activities carried out within the Project (representing 40,6% of total participants). 3) GENDER

20. Evaluacion de Impacto- Proyecto SSOS I fase20 Direct impact on national agendas, through union action whose greatest achievement is the ratification of Convention 102 in countries such as Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina and which is close to the ratification process in Honduras, the Dominican Republic or Paraguay. Visibility and protagonistic leadership of the labour movement of the Americas: -the building process in preparing the ILO Regional Meeting in December 2010 -Coordinating the participation of the labour movement of the Americas in the 100 th and 101st International Labour Conferences, where a discussion on the adoption of a Recommendation concerning the social protection floor initiative. Increase in participation of trade unions in developing reports for the ILO on the Social Security issue 4) TRIPARTISM AND SOCIAL DIALOGUE

21. PIT-CNT PIT-CNT www.noticiasbyo.org EQUIPO DE REPRESENTACIÓN DE LOS TRABAJADORES EN EL BPS create and develop our proposals seek viable and fair agreements and consensus ensure proposals are coherent be credible to others although they may think differently to us be trusted to receive information and ideas ensure we have a single dialogue EXPERIENCE of ORGANIZING TRADE UNION TECHNICAL TEAMS “URUGUAY’S ERT” Management…

22. PIT-CNT PIT-CNT www.noticiasbyo.org EQUIPO DE REPRESENTACIÓN DE LOS TRABAJADORES EN EL BPS essentially collective, in a team in our day-to-day functions as a team but with individual responsibilities in the Commission as a whole and in our general activity METHOD: taking stock of actions taken, discussion, proposal, planning and control Working method:

23. PIT-CNT PIT-CNT www.noticiasbyo.org EQUIPO DE REPRESENTACIÓN DE LOS TRABAJADORES EN EL BPS promote effectiveness, democratization of management, transparency, decentralization, the continuity of processes, study, continual training and the promotion of training of the team, on the social and union level and even by means of international activities Criteria… professionalization…

24. PIT-CNT PIT-CNT www.noticiasbyo.org EQUIPO DE REPRESENTACIÓN DE LOS TRABAJADORES EN EL BPS Each individual should practise teamwork Achieve involvement Establish trust Once the debate is over, decisions must be taken Obtain the resources required for activities Teamwork is a set of competencies and different personalities Each team member should know what the others do Clearly define the task, objectives and responsibilities Consult advisors for professional and technical support in a systematic way Teamwork:

25. PIT-CNT PIT-CNT www.noticiasbyo.org EQUIPO DE REPRESENTACIÓN DE LOS TRABAJADORES EN EL BPS “ “We believe that social dialogue and participation are essential to democracy and in particular social security, since it is – or should be – a fundamental human right and state policy.”

26. Congress of Argentine Workers Trade Union Technical Team Turin, April 2010

27. Year 2003 Within the framework of the Coordinating Committee of Southern Cone Trade Unions (Coordinadora de Centrales Sindicales,CCSCS) and through the Social Security Commission methodical efforts began to monitor, participate in and raise awareness of issues related to social security. Year 2005 First specific training experience via the Southern Cone Social Security Training Project (Proyecto de Formación de la Seguridad Social en el Cono Sur) promoted by ACTRAV and the International Training Centre in Turin.

28. Taking practical experience as our starting point, the knowledge acquired during the training process and transmitted based on specific experiences - such as those acquired by our colleagues on the Workers’ Representative Team (Equipo de Representación de los Trabajadores, ERT) of the Inter-Union Assembly of Workers-National Convention of Workers (PIT-CNT) in Uruguay, who monitored and encouraged this process throughout - the bases for the specification of a Trade Union Technical Team within the Confederation could begin.

29. Team member profile: Young delegates, activists that have some level of responsibility in a work group with a technical capacity or the commitment and potential to acquire it. Replacing the concept of technicians who give advice with that of colleagues who make proposals.

30. 2008 A training and self-training phase began for team members on matters of Social Security, also dealing with knowledge related to international labour standards, employment and social dialogue as basic pillars of Decent Work. Talks with experts on social security, health, labour law, family law, labour risks, and so on were organized around these key themes. Several colleagues took part in training programmes organized by ACTRAV, another of Solicomm forums, and these issues made it possible for all colleagues to take part in specific exchange experiences. Support for ILO ACTRAV projects.

31. The aim of the Trade Union Technical Team (ETS) is to promote social security as a fundamental human right. To acquire knowledge and abilities in order to formulate public policy. To give control and monitor existing policies. To propagate social security among the grassroots groups, and formulate the positions of the Confederation on the changes made to social security in Argentina since 2007. To facilitate debate within the Confederation and promote the creation of a Social Security Commission as a space for wide- ranging debate on strategies in this sphere.

32. 32 Thank you Jesús García j.jimenez@itcilo.orgj.jimenez@itcilo.org